Traditional fogeys can build thirteen notable ballistic units of their storage or basement workshops utilizing low-cost family or ironmongery store fabrics and this step by step consultant. transparent directions, diagrams, and pictures express find out how to construct initiatives starting from the simple-a match-powered rocket-to the extra complex-a scale-model, table-top catapult-to the offbeat-a tennis ball cannon. With a powerful emphasis on protection, the ebook additionally provides tips about troubleshooting, explains the physics in the back of the tasks, and profiles scientists and striking experimenters similar to Alfred Nobel, Robert Goddard, and Isaac Newton. This booklet can be integral for the legions of yard toy-rocket launchers and fireworks lovers who want on a daily basis used to be the fourth of July.

International warming. emerging gas costs. Dependency on international power. by no means have such a lot of american citizens been extra influenced to take a position in renewable power correct of their place of abode. Leaving the technical jargon and contractor's lingo at the back of, this publication bargains transparent, functional options that any house owner can positioned to exploit instantly.

Event the magic of biology on your own residence lab. This hands-on advent contains greater than 30 academic (and enjoyable) experiments that assist you discover this attention-grabbing box by yourself. ideal for heart- and high-school scholars and DIY lovers, this full-color consultant teaches you the fundamentals of biology lab paintings and indicates you ways to establish a secure lab at domestic.

Twenty-one years in the past, at a friend's request, a Massachusetts professor sketched out a blueprint for nonviolent resistance to repressive regimes. it is going to move directly to be translated, photocopied, and passed from one activist to a different, touring from kingdom to state around the globe: from Iran to Venezuela—where either international locations think of Gene Sharp to be an enemy of the state—to Serbia; Afghanistan; Vietnam; the previous Soviet Union; China; Nepal; and, extra lately and particularly, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, and Syria, the place it has served as a guiding gentle of the Arab Spring.

Culling universal home goods to create an unusual arsenal of miniature devices and sidearms, this guidebook presents home made undercover agent fans with 35 various surveillance instruments and guns.

From a mini-catapult in a breath-mint tin to milk-jug cap blow-dart wristwatches, this guide info how you can in achieving clandestine ends essentially and inexpensively. as well as growing guns reminiscent of periscopes, bionic ears, and grappling hooks, spies-to-be will locate principles on how one can cover their stash—a deck of playing cards, a false-bottom soda bottle, or a cereal box-brief case—and suggestions for objective perform.

The sparks ignite the hairspray-air mixture inside. The gaseous mixture expands quickly and pushes against everything as it expands. The rigid PVC walls won't move, but the potato can, and does. In fact, the expanding gas moves so quickly and so rapidly that the potato flies out of the tube and into the air. 20 THE POTATO CANNON One can almost imagine Sir Isaac Newton, in a velvet waistcoat, breeches, and powdered wig, flicking the firing knob of a potato cannon. " Newton, of course, was a seventeenth-century English physicist and mathematician.

Place the foil square on a flat surface. 2. The pins act as a form or mold for the holes that make the jet exhaust ports. 2 First, place pins and match on foil square. 4. Wrap the foil around the head of the match, extending the foil between 1/4 and 1/2 inch past the head. Take your time and use care as you mold the foil around the match and pins. The jet ports must be perfectly formed in order for the rocket to work. 5. Carefully remove the pins from the rocket assembly. The cylindrical areas left after removing the pins form the jet exhaust ports.

5 End cap detail IN THE SPOTLIGHT ALFRED NOBEL Back in the old days, mining was tough work. In order to obtain ore, men had to swing picks and hammers to crack the rock so they could haul it for refining and smelting. When gunpowder came along, the miners thought that maybe it could be used to break up the rocks. But gunpowder wasn't powerful enough to do the job. Then an Italian scientist, Ascanio Sobrero, invented nitroglycerin, a very powerful liquid explosive. Nitroglycerin is extremely sensitive, making it difficult to transport and use safely.